Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series!
August 23, 2007 | 3 Comments
No shock, but this is an extremely exciting announcement for me. In the video we only see Spider-Man as a whole, but there are snippets of a few other classic villains shown in this order: Doc Ock, Lizard or Scorpion, Electro, Goblin, Vulture, Sandman and Venom.
This will be arriving sometime in 2008!
Tags: animated, animation, cartoon, doc ock, electro, goblin, lizard, Sandman, Scorpion, spectacular spider-man, spectacular spiderman, spider-man, spiderman, venom, Vulture
Iron Man Movie Excitement
April 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment
As Spider-Man 3 prepares to hit theaters on Friday night kicking off the summer 2007 movies, I begin to look forward to the Marvel movies of summer 2008. Headlining those charts is the exciting Jon Favreau rendition of Iron Man.
Classically, Iron Man/Tony Stark has not been one of my favorite Marvel characters. However, 2005’s Orson Scott Card written Ultimate Iron Man series piqued my interest. Following this, the deep involvement in Spider-Man continuity. Peter befriends and relies on Tony Stark, moves into Avengers tower with Mary Jane and Aunt May. He then changes to the Iron Spidey costume. Eventually comes out in support of Stark’s Super Hero Registration Act initiative and reveals his identity. His stance changes in the long run as he defies Iron Man, goes underground and joins the resistance as part of the conclusion of Civil War. All this certainly puts Iron Man front and center in all my comic readings.
Of additional note, last winter’s Invincible Iron Man DVD, created by the same animation studio responsible for Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2 DVDs, was the best of the three.
With all this in mind, the star studded casting of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Terrence Howard as good friend and coworker Jim Rhodes/War Machine, Gwyneth Paltrow as the love interest Viginia “Pepper” Potts, and Jeff Bridges as the apparent villain Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger is highly exciting.
I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the first teaser trailer…
Tags: "ultimate avengers", avengers, civi war, dvd, gwyneth paltrow, invincible iron man, iron man, iron monger, james rhodes, jeff bridges, jim rhodes, jon favreau, marvel, movie, obadiah stane, orson scott card, pepper potts, poster, robert downey, robert downey jr, spider-man, spiderman, spidey, tony stark, trailer, war machine
Which Wiki? Marvel.com vs Wikipedia
April 25, 2007 | 4 Comments
In Casey’s recent post: “Please, Not Another Wiki”, I felt some serious resonance with an internal debate I’m having. In short, Casey states that in general new wikis are a bad idea. They require an entire community to be successful and why not leverage an existing wiki (like Wikipedia) to accomplish your task.
Specifically, when externally linking to details about a comic book character in the Marvel Universe I find myself unsure whether to link to Marvel.com’s Marvel Universe Wiki or to a specific article on Wikipedia. Marvel’s wiki has a much more structured format. There is always a consistent set of data about each and every hero.
However, it is limited in this structure as well. There are less pictures, no external links, and a lack of information tertiary topics. The tertiary topics I find lacking include publication history, video games, and television appearances, etc. Similarly, Wikipedia has great profiles on the various artists and authors. This can develop insight and detail not available on Marvel.com.
Also, Wikipedia has a larger community who can be more responsive. Yet, Marvel has the expertise in this area and in turn should be able to provide better editing. In the end I still find myself leaning towards Wikipedia, however, I remain torn as Marvel has develop a fairly competitive alternative. I’ve pulled a couple side-by side examples so you can compare yourself.
| Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel | Wikipedia | Marvel |
| Jessica Jones | Wikipedia | Marvel |
| Peter Parker/Spider-Man | Wikipedia | Marvel |
| Sandman/William Baker | Wikipedia | Marvel |
I am left wondering if Marvel had just invested their initial time and resources into working with Wikipedia, wouldn’t contributors, consumers, and fans have benefited more?
Tags: carol danvers, comics, jessica jones, marvel, marvel universe, ms marvel, peter parker, Sandman, spider-man, spiderman, wiki, wikipedia, wikis, william baker
Spider-Man 3: Second Video Game Trailer
April 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The Spider-Man games from Activision have consistently been outstanding. This is a surprise, considering most movie based games often turn out horrible, usually do to inflexible release schedules.
I find these games to be fun just to explore and swing around New York. In this new release, the city is bigger, deeper, and more detailed. Aa long as the Wii controls hold up, this is destined to be an amazing adventure game. This trailer has me salivating for this game even more than the first trailer.
Tags: "Spider-Man 3", activision, controls, marvel, new york, nintendo wii, spider-man 3 the game, spiderman, trailer, video game, wii
Another Spider-Man 3 Trailer
April 12, 2007 | 2 Comments
Based mostly off the NBC HD exclusive trailer, Sony put out this new Spider-Man 3 trailer.
In addition to the extended fight footage with the new Green Goblin, we also see a better outline of the plot. We also see a scarred face Harry, leading us to believe he was not killed in either of the two places where previous clips implied he may have died. The part most people will be excited about in this trailer is the fight sequence with Venom. It is fairly extensive and show Eddie Brock first merge with the suit, we see him with sharpened and pointy teeth, and we see Venom able to sneak up on Spider-Man, meaning they will keep his ability to not set off Spider-Man’s “spider sense”.
I have to say, I think they have shown too much of this movie. Frankly, if you compiled all the trailers and exclusive footage together, you would probably have most of the film right there. I had hoped they would make Venom like Jaws and keep him hidden up until release. The buzz and excitement over seeing him alone would have made this movie break all records.
I recommend not watching this trailer or anymore trailers May 5, 2007 will be here soon enough. If you can hold off until then, you will enjoy this movie more, I’m certain of it.
Tags: eddie brock, Green Goblin, harry osborn, movie, spider sense, spider-man, spiderman, spiderman 3, spidey, trailer, venom
Spider-Man 3: Serious Fanboy Anti-criticism
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I felt it was finally time to weigh in on a couple ridiculous criticisms I’ve seen circulating on the net related to the upcoming Spider-Man 3 movie:
1) Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane appearing in the movie at the same time
It is absolutely true that Peter fell in love with Gwen before MJ. However, MJ was first referenced in Amazing Spider-Man #15 (1964) and fully appeared for the first time in #42 (1966). At this point they immediately begin dating. This of course annoys Gwen Stacy who first appeared in issue #31 (1965) and has a crush on Pete. Eventually Peter ditches MJ due to her apparent shallow superficiality. He promptly dates Gwen, and as MJ is dating Harry Osborn (Pete’s roommate) all of them hang out together regularly. MJ continues to show interest in Peter to Gwen and Harry’s disliking. Eventually Gwen is killed at the hands of the Green Goblin in issue #121 (1973). The writers do this because the seriousness of their relationship can only lead to marriage logically and they do not want Spider-Man to have aged this much so soon.
After this tragedy, Peter and MJ have a bit of a rekindling, but they never manage to get things together. It is not until issue #258 (1984) that MJ reveals that she knows his secret identity and she has matured to a point where they establish a solid relationship that has mostly remained to this day. The movie has certainly approached this in a slightly different way, but not as far off as some have claimed, nowhere near enough to “ruin the film” or make anyone “hate Raimi”.
Seriously though, can anyone deny Howard’s hotness as Gwen?
Actually, if we want to get all weird about this, Betty Brant showed up in Amazing #4 and was definitely the first significant girl Peter dated!
2) Venom’s teeth and tongue are too small
When Todd McFarlane (visual creator of Venom) first drew the character, it was without the large pointy teeth and tongue. Later, Erik Larsen adds these things plus a ton of green drool when he replaced McFarlane as the lead artist on Amazing. Since then these visual elements have always been repeated, as well as exaggerated, with each new artist that draws Venom. Raimi’s choice to use a fairly stripped down “original” Venom probably made for a much easier character to portray on screen.
On that note, here’s a new picture to enjoy of Spidey actually fighting with Venom:
Tags: amazing spider-man, Betty Brant, erik larsen, gwen stacy, mary jane, mary jane watson, movie, sam raimi, spider-man, spiderman, spiderman 3, todd mcfarlane, venom
Spider-Man 3: NBC.com Exclusive HD Preview
March 6, 2007 | 2 Comments
If you don’t like to know much about upcoming movies and truly appreciate the surprise and enjoyment of seeing things for the first time in the theater, stop reading now.
NBC.com is running an exclusive HD preview of Spider-Man 3. The catch is that it will only be online until 12AM tonight! (Of course then you’ll just have to look for it on YouTube or Google video…) This is more of a clip, or full scene than a preview. It is a full 7m 31s long clip that shows three major scenes and then ends with a few short clips in preview style.
First it starts with Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson hanging out in a web expressing their love for each other. This then cuts to a scene with Peter telling Aunt May his intentions to ask MJ to marry him. Aunt May tells a touching story of how here and Ben met, as well as the fact that they would have been married 50 years if he had not been killed. She then gives Peter her engagement ring to give MJ.
This then cuts to Peter on his scooter where he is attacked by the new Green Goblin. After throwing him around quite a bit, the Goblin removes his mask, revealing Harry Osborn, and tells Peter he is going to kill him. Peter argues that he did not kill Harry’s father Norman and the chase begins.
This fight continues for a majority of the preview. The fight is particularly brutal. At one point Peter nearly loses Aunt May’s ring, but is able to fight off Harry long enough to get it back. At this point Harry starts pulling out some of his special goblin weapons.
Peter is able to use them back against him and catches Harry off guard. He finally gets enough distance between himself and Harry to setup a clothesline of webbing to surprise and takedown Harry.
We then see Harry fall four or five stories onto the pavement where he is seen unconscious. Peter rushes too him and begins CPR. We are left wondering if Harry is in fact alive. Having seen other clips in other trailers, Harry does end up in a hospital, so this must mean he survived.
This is where the “scene” portion of the preview ends. We then see the text “and the story continues…” Then it transitions into a series of clips from the movie. The most significant being of Sandman and Venom. I really love how they show Sandman as able to become huge in this clip.
Finally we are treated to our first clear, high quality shot of Venom. Sadly, it is the same shot we have seen blurry in previous leaked and official trailers.
I continue to be excited about this movie, but I am starting to think they are showing us too much. If this is the entirety of the Goblin vs Spider-Man action in this film, I will be a little let down that it was shown so completely to us. As much as I enjoyed this, I do appreciate secrecy and surprises in the theater.
Tags: "black suit", "Spider-Man 3", aunt may, ben parker, engagement, film, goblin, Green Goblin, harry osborn, mary jane, mary jane watson, mj, movie, nbc, nbc.com, peter parker, preview, ring, Sandman, sony, spider-man, spiderman, spiderman 3, theater, trailer, venom